CLD-190 NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

___________

No. 11-3770

___________

FELIX ORIAKHI,

Appellant

v.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED 

STATES OF AMERICA; DONNA ZICKEFOOSE

____________________________________

On Appeal from the United States District Court

for the District of New Jersey

(D.N.J. Civil No. 11-cv-05648)

District Judge: Honorable Jerome B. Simandle

____________________________________

Submitted for Possible Summary Action Pursuant to 

Third Circuit LAR 27.4 and I.O.P. 10.6

May 31, 2012

Before: RENDELL, HARDIMAN and VAN ANTWERPEN, Circuit Judges

(Opinion filed: June 14, 2012)

_________

OPINION

_________

PER CURIAM

Felix Oriakhi, a federal prisoner proceeding pro se, appeals an order of the United 

States District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissing his petition for a writ of 
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habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm 

the judgment of the District Court.

Oriakhi was convicted after a jury trial in 1990 in the United States District Court 

for the District of Maryland of conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin and interstate 

travel in furtherance of an unlawful conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin. He was 

sentenced to 460 months in prison. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth 

Circuit affirmed the conviction in 1992. Oriakhi has unsuccessfully sought postconviction relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and § 2241 and has been denied leave to 

file a successive § 2255 motion.

In 2011, Oriakhi filed a habeas petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the 

District of New Jersey challenging his conviction and sentence. Oriakhi claimed that his 

counsel was ineffective in failing to advise him of the deportation consequences of his 

conviction, that his sentence is based on a drug quantity that was not found by the jury or 

set forth in the indictment, and that his counsel failed to seek a remedy for a violation of 

the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The District Court dismissed the petition 

for lack of jurisdiction, concluding that Oriakhi was required to seek relief pursuant to 28 

U.S.C. § 2255. This appeal followed.

“Motions pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 are the presumptive means by which 

federal prisoners can challenge their convictions or sentences . . . .” Okereke v. United 

States, 307 F.3d 117, 120 (3d Cir. 2002). Although a petitioner may challenge a 

conviction pursuant to § 2241 where a § 2255 motion would be “inadequate or 
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ineffective,” a § 2255 motion is not inadequate or ineffective because the petitioner is 

unable to meet § 2255’s gatekeeping requirements. Cradle v. United States, 290 F.3d 

536, 538-39 (3d Cir. 2002) (per curiam). Rather, a § 2255 motion is inadequate or 

ineffective “only where the petitioner demonstrates that some limitation of scope or 

procedure would prevent a § 2255 proceeding from affording him a full hearing and 

adjudication of his wrongful detention claim.” Id.

Oriakhi has not made such a showing. As noted above, the fact that Oriakhi may 

be unable to meet § 2255’s gatekeeping requirements for filing a second or successive 

at 538.

§ 2255 motion does not render a § 2255 motion “inadequate or ineffective.” In his 

response to possible summary action, Oriakhi contends that the District Court had 

jurisdiction to entertain his petition under United States v. Orocio, 645 F.3d 630 (3d Cir. 

2011), which held that Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), applies retroactively 

to cases on collateral review.1

 Orocio, however, involved a petition for a writ of error 

coram nobis brought by a petitioner who was no longer in custody, not a § 2241 petition, 

and did not address the jurisdictional issue presented here. We have allowed a petitioner 

to challenge a conviction in a § 2241 petition in the unusual case where his conduct may 

no longer be criminal under a decision issued after his § 2255 proceedings concluded. In

re Dorsainvil

 1

Padilla recognized that counsel’s failure to warn a defendant that a plea would make him 

eligible for removal constitutes constitutionally defective representation. Orocio, 645

F.3d at 641.

, 119 F.3d 245, 251 (3d Cir. 1997). This is not the case here.
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Accordingly, because this appeal does not raise a substantial question, we will 

affirm the judgment of the District Court.